The present invention relates to holders for containers for flowers and plants such as flower vases and pots which is particularly useful for supporting these containers during transportation from one place to another.
Florists sell flowers and plants both directly to customers so that the customers can take their purchase with them, and also deliver the flowers and plants to wherever the customer designates.
The problem is that during transportation, either by the customer or florist, it often happens that the flower vase or pot easily tips over spilling the contents.
One known attempted solution to this problem is to place the containers in a box. However, boxes are not specially designed for the purpose of transporting such containers and do not hold the container upright. The containers can and do still fall over and the contents are spilled inside the box. Furthermore, boxes take up substantial volume and, therefore, present a storage problem because they occupy valuable space in the florist's business facility.
Another problem also exists at the destination of the containers, such as hospitals, which receive many containers of flowers and plants for patients which must then be delivered to the various patients. This is often done on push carts and the containers are easily tipped over spilling the contents which must be cleaned up.
Various other solutions have been proposed. Examples of these proposed solutions are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,063,328 issued on Dec. 8, 1936; U.S. Pat. No. 2,784,577 issued on Mar. 12, 1957; U.S. Pat. No. 2,980,377 issued on Apr. 18, 1961; U.S. Pat. No. 3,297,289 issued on Jan. 10, 1967; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,553 issued on Feb. 23, 1988.
However, each of these proposed solutions has itself major drawbacks. For example, each of these proposals is of a fixed size and accept only one size container. This drawback requires an inventory of such holders of various sizes.
A further drawback of the containers shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,784,577; U.S. Pat. No. 2,980,377; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,553 is that they are of a physical configuration which requires a substantial space when stored.